By Alessia Espejo (Guest Writer from Markham College; Lima, Peru)

     After getting a sneak peek of American culture I have noticed that many times stereotypes are partially true. Prior to writing this article I did some research. Web pages listed many different stereotypes and after viewing various sites, I was able to narrow it down to the most common assumptions we have about each others’ culture.

Latino stereotypes of American Culture:      

• They are all warmongers (They enjoy war)
• It’s a superficial culture. (Hollywood and celebrities)
• Everything needs to be XXL, including people.
• They think they are the best.

American stereotypes of Latin Culture:

• Women are feisty and have curves.
• Everyone can speak Spanish.
• It’s a soapopera culture; everyone is having affairs and being romantic.
• Most of the population is poor and looks dirty.

     Curious about stereotypes in cultural perspectives I decided on interviewing a pair of students from Mariemont and another pair from Markham College, a British high school in Lima, Peru. I chose to ask the same questions to all interviewees and then compare the answers.

     When I asked Carolina Schwalb a sophomore at Markham she said, “The thought of Americans enjoying war is stupid. Many people think that because they have been in war with Iraq, they are all war mongers.”

     When I asked Schwalb whether she thought that Americans really thought they were the best, she simply responded by saying, “I have lived in many places around the world, but never in USA, so I couldn’t really give you a straight forward answer. I think that more than thinking they’re the best, they are proud of being Americans. ”

      MHS freshman, Olivia Erhardt states, “I don’t think Americans are war mongers. There’s always a lot of controversy when it comes to war and peace. People probably assume that Americans enjoy war because we have been a big part of it in the past and over the last few years. I don’t think it’s something to be proud of.”

     When I mentioned the fact that people thought of Americans as arrogant people, she responded, “Personally, I don’t think Americans are the best and those who do, I think, are just ignorant. It really depends, there are some who assume they are the best, and then there are others around the world that take things too personally and are too sensitive about culture.”

     I asked another Markham student, Jacobo De La Piedra, about Latin stereotypes. He seemed amused. “I believe that people think that Latin women have curves because most of the models from Latin America have that body type. Also, people have an idea about women being feisty due to TV,” he said.

     De La Piedra thought the idea of Latin culture being soap operatic was funny. “We have a lot of soap operas, which I don’t personally watch, but not everyone is romantic and dramatic. Latin America is quite similar to USA in that sense,” he said.

     Taylor Giordullo, an MHS freshman said, “I don’t believe in stereotypes, most people just base these assumptions on the few people they know.” Giourdullo also said that she thought that Latin culture wasn’t soap operatic, “I think that people are thinking about movies and automatically assuming that’s what goes on in Latin America. I think you find drama everywhere.”

     Coming here has made me realize that stereotypes can be a number of things from amusing to hurtful and from completely stupid to partially true. All assumptions must be based on something, but this trip has made me realize that even though some are partially true it’s worth getting to know people in other cultures first hand.